A thrilling finish saw the U14s victorious over Chalfont St Giles by just one run. Needed 6 off the final over, CSG appeared to have victory in their grasp when they needed two from the last three balls. A classic panic situation then developed. The fourth ball of the over was hit straight to Will Cuthbert at cover, who effected a run out with a direct hit. The fifth ball saw the non-striker run, but the batsmen stay in his crease, and another run out ensued. The last ball was a perfect outswinger just outside off stump, the batsman swinging and missing to give Wooburn a dramatic win. Well done to Tom Wright for bowling an excellent last over.
Wooburn won the toss and batted on a sunny, warm evening. Niall Dearsley opened with Will against some good CSG bowling. In the early overs, the batsmen had to be content with ones and twos, but did manage to keep the score moving. After Niall was caught at mid wicket, Will and Oli picked up the scoring rate, although the bowling remained testing. Their partnership put together 79 runs, before Will was bowled for 41. Oli followed soon after for 35, but Alfie Kempston and Chris Head managed to take the score up to a competitive 120 in the last few overs.
The CSG innings started well, with Patel is dominant form. He drove and cut powerfully and CSG were well up with the rate in the early overs. Will picked up one early wicket, but it was Niall who had the crucial breakthrough, bowling Patel as the batsman look to pull a ball on off stump. After Patel’s dismissal, runs continued to come, partly helped by the number of wides (15) and no balls (8). Some of the Wooburn fielding was a little disappointing too, with one or two fielders reluctant to get hands and body behind the ball when it was hit reasonably hard. Niall, producing his best bowling for some time, took two more wickets, and Dan McDougle took one in an encouraging first spell. Despite losing wickets, CSG managed to keep up with the required rate. It all came to the exciting final over, with Wooburn holding their nerve under pressure and just managing to finish on top.
There are areas where the team could have done much better, but overall it was a good effort against a very good team, who had comfortably won two of their first three matches.
Batting: W.Cuthbert 41, N.Dearsley 1, O.Lawrie 35, A.Kempston 9*, C.Head 5*
Bowling: W.Cuthbert 4-0-27-1, T.Wright 4-0-20-0, J.H.Kelly 4-0-21-0, N.Dearsley 4-0-21-3, D.McDougle 3-0-16-1, C.Kempster 1-0-8-0
Team: Will Cuthbert, Niall Dearsley, Oli Lawrie (capt), Alfie Kempston, Chris Head, John Henry Kelly, Tom Wright, Dan McDougle, Cameron Lamming, Jake Tasker, Ciaran Kempster.
